Athletic skirt



A. HARMON.

ATHLETIC SKIRT. APPLICATION FILED APR. 10, 1920.

Patented July 11, 1922.

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MmMw /a A. H ARMON. ATHLETIC SKIRT.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 10, I920.

Patented July 11, 19522.

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ANNE HARMON, or IaviNGToN-oN-THn-HUnsoN, NEW Yoarr.

ATHLETIC skin'r.

\ Specification of Letters Patent. Patgntgd July 11, 1922 mac-am filed April 10, 1926. Serial No. 372,742.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANNE HARMON, a,

citizen of the United States, and resident of tIrvingtoncntheliudson, in the county of \V'estchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Iinprovements in Athletic Skirts, of which the foland has for its general object to provide a single garment possessing the combined advantages of a skirt and pair of loorners without the disadvantages of added eiipens'e of two sep'arate garments and the encumhering of the weai'ei"s legs by baggy bloomer rvoi-n within a skirt. b

Other objects of the invention are to provide a garment having the graceful appearance 011a skirt and so consti'ucted as to permit perfect freedom of motion without exposing the person or undergarments of the wearer; to provide an athletic skirt having a transversel extending diaphragm secured within the same and extending across the shirt in a plane just above the knees of the wearer so as to leave the legs free up to and including the knee joints, aadalso leave the legs free and unencumbered above the plane of the'aiaphragm; and to, provideanathletic skirt having a transversely extending diaphragm provided with leg openings and so located and constructed that the skirt will fall natilr'ally and evenly from the waist-line wheii the wearer stands in a normal position, that the wearer may freely move the legs relatively to each other in all directions the maximum extent, and that the diaphragm will not ball up between the knees and crotch EtZhCl im ede the \iearei s movements or cause discomfort and'ehafing. In the drawinggFig. 1 is a perspective view, artly in vertical section, of a skirt, illustrating the pie-renal embodiment of the invention; y r

Fig. 2 a bottom plan View,

Fig. "3 a fragmentary vertical sectional View, takenen the}line'III: III of Fig; 2*, a an; or the diaphragm being shown in front elevation Fig. 4 a plan yiew of the two sectionsoi which the central bridge-piece (if the diaphrag-m is formed;

'Fig'5 a plan view of one of the two end pieces or leg-encircling portions of the diaphragm Fig. 6 a plan View showing a slightly modified form of end piece;

Fig. 7 a plan view of the diaphragm without the elastic garters or other means for gathering the full end portions oi the diaphragm around the leg openings; and

Fig. 8 a plan view of the diaphragm, without the garters, folded centrally.

Referring to the various parts by numerals, 1 designates a skirt which is preferably of approximately knee-length and provided with a very deep bottom hem 2, the hem being preferably about seven inches deep. A closure or diaphragm 3 is secured wi thin the skirt at a point above the knee line by stitching or otherwise attaching the outer edge oi the diaphragm to the inside of the skirt along the hem l ine,ras shown at 4 in Figs. 1 and 3. The diaphragm is provided with leg openings 5 adjacent opposite sides of the skirt, and is elongated in the direction of the width of the skirt for the purposes hereinafter set forth.

The diaphragm is so constructed as to have a general elliptical contour in plan View when attached to the "skirt aiidalso to have an excess of material at each end forming full portions around the leg openings, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. While a diaphragm having the final form shown in the drawings may be made up from varying numbers of pieces of material cut in various shapes, I prefer to form the diaphragm of two endpieces 6, of similar shape, and two intermediat'e pieces 7 and 8.

The two pieces of material 7 and 8 are stitched together along their adjacent conside edge and two relatively short straight en'd edges extending at right angles to said straight side edge. The other side edge of each end piece 6 flares away from the long straight side edge thereof toward each end of the piece so that the end piece gradually increases in Width toward its ends. This result may be obtained by cutting this edge of the end piece on a continuous are, as shown at 12 in Fig. 5, by cutting this edge so as to provide'an intermediate straight edge portion 13 and oppositely inclined edge portions 14, as shown in Fig. 6, or in any other suitable manner. The straight side edges of the end pieces 6, or 6 are folded upward and stitched to the end piece along the dotted line 15 (Figs. 5 and-6) to form hems 16. The end edges of the pieces-6, or 6, from the hem line 15 to the curved or dished side edge thereof, are the same length as the inclined edges 10 and 11 of the outer ends of the two .part bridge piece and are stitched thereto as shown in Figs. 7 and :8, thus forming full portions of peculiar form at the ends of the diaphragm having leg openings 5 therethrough bounded by the hemmed edges 16 of the end pieces.

The ends of each of the hems 16 meet at the apex of the adjacent pointed or gusset portion of the central bridge. These hems form very large openings and the full portions of the diaphragm around the leg openings are gathered by confining in each hem 16 an elastic band or garter 17 of suitable size to securely grip the wearers leg above the knee. It will be obvious that drawstrings, tapes, or the like may be employed instead of elastic garters, if desired.

The total length of the front and rear edges of the central bridge piece and the dished edges of the two end pieces, which form the outer edge of the completed 'diaphragm, equals the length of the stitched upper edge of the hem 2 of the skirt, or the circumference of the skirt at the point of connection of the diaphragm therewith. The straight front and rear edges of the pieces 7 and 8 are stitched to the front and back of the skirt, respectively, along the upper edge of the hem2, and the dished edges of the end pieces 6 are stitched along the remaining portions of the hem line at opposite sides of the skirt.

By constructing the diaphragm as above described, the skirt will not be pulled inwardly fore and aft at the inner side of each leg opening when the adjacent portions of the diaphragm are gathered around the leg openings, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. It will also be observed that the elongated dia phragm, provided with full leg-encirclin portions formed by the end pieces 6 and pointed gusset portions of the central bridge, permitsfree maximum movement of the legs in all directions relatively to each other,

and will not drop below the bottom of the skirt at any point. The diaphragm extends across the skirt between the knees and the tops of the wearers stockings and is so con structed that it will not become bunched between the legs above the stockings or sag I downwardly so as to be visible beloW the skirt, and will not draw the skirt inward between thewearers legs. By forming the bridge piece of two members 7 and 8 having dished edges 9 stitched together, unnecessary fullness of the diaphragm between the legs is avoided and the width of the diaphragm centrally from front to rear is increased, permitting natural sagging ofv the diaphragm in the center withoutdistorting the skirt.

In use the garters 17 are preferably pushed up about the legs to a JOlIlt about midway the upper and lower .e ge of the hem 2, as shownin Fig. 1, in which position the fullness at the ends of the diaphragm around the leg openings 5 permits considerable freedom of movement ofthe' legs in all directions without pulling on the line. 4 and disturbing the naturalhang of the skirt. The skirt 1 may be accordion plaited, asshown, or may be plain. It will be obvious thata full skirt, if accordion plaited, will normally 1 hang more closely about the wearers body than a plain full skirt.

Itwill be observed in Fig. l (which is a plan view of the bloomer section extended) that the outside or lower edges of the leg openings project in this position a considerable distance beyond theupper edges there,- of which are secured to the skirt. Thisenables the wearer to spread her legs a great distance beyond the limits of the seam line. 4; consequently, any wide stride of the wearer will not draw or affect the hang of the skirt. This extra length of the bottom of the bloomers is secured by forming the central panel. wider across its center than at its edgesand shaping the blanks of the leg-sections with one cut-out side, as at 12, so that'when the leg sections are secured to the central panel the narrowest portions of said leg-sections are located at the outside, and, as the top edge ofthe diaphragm, including the legportions, is secured to the skirt ona horizontal line, this inclines the bottom edges of and consequently causes the outer lower portion of the leg sections to projectv beyond the secured edge at the top side. In other words, the length of the bottom of the diaphragm taken on a center line, which is the limit of spread, is greater than the length of the space between the extremities of the topedge where it is secured to the skirt.

It will be observed further that the length of the central panel from one leg-opening to the other is greater than the Width of the same from the front to the back of the skirt, so that, when the diaphragm including the leg-portions is expanded, it will be approximately oval in shape, which will permit a greater stretch in one direction. than in the other.

The arch. formed by the seam uniting the curved edges of-the pieces 7 and 8 curves out- 'shorter in length from the seam-line 4 to the leg-opening than is the center dimension of either of the sections 7 or 8 from the legopening to the seam-line 9. Thus, extending between the leg-openings is the long panel section, which in normal positions is prevented from sagging below the plane of the leg-openings preferably by the arched seam 9 and also forms'long inside leg-portions, and at the outside of each leg-opening is the relatively short leg-portion which prevents sagging of the outside of the leg-portions and permits a freedom of out-ward movement beyond the limits of the seam-line 4: at both sides of the garment simultaneously.

hat I claim is: y

l. A skirt having a flexible diaphragm embodying depending leg-portions each being constructed from a piece of material having one straight long-side, end-edges formed at right-angles to said straight long-side, an opposite long-side which flares away from said straight long-side toward its ends to form a short outer side for the depending leg-portion, and an extended central panel to form long inner sides for both leg-portions and to the side-edges of which are connected the straight end-edges of the legportions, the flaring edges of said leg-portions and the front and rear edges of said central panel being secured all. around the inner side of the skirt between the bottom edge and the waist-line thereof.

2. A skirt having a flexible diaphragm embodying depending leg-portions each being constructed from a piece of material having one straight long-side, end-edges formed at right-angles to said straight long side, an opposite long-side which flares away from said straight long-side toward its ends to form a short outer side for the depending leg-portions, and an extended central panel to form long inner-sides for both leg-portions and to the side-edges of which are connected the straight end-edges of the leg-portions and provided with a central downwardly-arched seam extending between the front and rear sides of the skirt to support the central portion above the bottom edges of the leg-portions, the flaring edges of said leg-portions and the front and rear edges of the central panel being secured all around the inner-side of the skirt between the bottom-edge and the waist-line thereof.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

ANNE HARMON. 

